Categories

What are you looking for?

Tag: sweet

Lemon cake, sandwiched together with lemon curd and cream, topped with an elderflower glaze.

It is elderflower season again so I have been making copious amounts of my elderflower cordial. I love using elderflower in baking as its such a beautifully delicate flavour. I decided to use it in something really simple, so I made this lemon and elderflower sponge cake.

Variations: You could use another citrus fruit to complement the elderflower, both lime and orange would work really well. Also if you don’t like elderflower you could add another floral flavour to the icing like lavender or rose.

Ingredients: Serves 8-10

The Sponge:

250g butter

250g caster sugar

zest of two lemons

4 eggs

250g self raising flour

3-4tbsp elderflower cordial

The Filling:

200ml double cream – whipped

150g lemon curd

The Icing

200g icing sugar

2-5tbsp elderflower cordial

To Make:

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line two 20cm cake tins.

Combine all the ingredients for the sponge and mix with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.

Spoon into the prepared cake tins and level off.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown on top and springy to touch.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Once the cakes are cool, place one cake onto a cake stand or serving plate and spread with lemon curd. Dollop the whipped cream onto and gently spread t the edges. Sandwich the next cake layer ontop.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl, and add the elderflower cordial tbsp at time, stop when the mixture has formed a thick paste that coats the back of a spoon.

Pour the icing over the top of the cake, and gently spread to the edges, add a bit at a time, so it doesn’t all just run over the edges. You should end up with a rustic drippy finish tough!

Decorate with some edible flowers (I have used primrose and violas) and serve!

Soft jelly made with pomegranate juice, flavoured with hibiscus flowers and cinnamon.

I made this jelly to have as a dessert after a curry, so I wanted something light and fruity! I got this recipe from my Sweet Sicily cookbook by Alessandra Damone. Her recipe uses watermelon and jasmine flowers, but I couldn’t get hold of these, so I decided to use pomegranate and hibiscus instead!

This jelly was really really easy to make, and it had a lovely exotic flavour which finished off our meal wonderfully. Using cornflour and gelatine also gave this a lovely soft set which I find much nicer than if you just use gelatine! I used one sachet of powdered gelatine which is enough to set one pint of liquid, so you could use an equivalent amount of leaf gelatine instead.

They look very impressive once you have added the decoration as well, so they would be a great dessert to impress your friends with!

Variations: You could probably use any fruit and floral/ spicy favours you wanted in this jelly. I think Rose and raspberry would taste lovely.

Ingredients: Serves Two

500ml good quality pomegranate juice

1tbsp dried hibiscus flowers

40g corn flour

7g powdered gelatine (enough to set 1 pint)

1 cinnamon stick

200g sugar

chopped pistachios, chocolate chips and cinnamon for decoration.

To Make:

Dissolve the cornflour in 2 tbsp of the Pomegranate juice.

In a large pan combine the remaining pomegranate juice, hibiscus flowers cinnamon stick and sugar. Cook over a low heat until it reaches almost boiling point.

Stir in the cornflour mixture and gelatine, and continue to heat, constantly stiring until the mixture thickens slightly and the gelatine is completely dissolved.

strain into individual ramekins or wine glasses, making sure all the hibiscus flowers and cinnamon stick are removed.

Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Once set remove from the fridge and decorate with ground cinnamon, chopped pistachios and chocolate chips.

Easter has coincided with my boyfriends birthday this year, so I decided to make him an Easter themed birthday cake!

I had a browse around on Pinterest and I found these amazing tutorials for making a speckled egg cake, and I think they look fantastic so I decided to try and make one myself.

My cake is hazelnut and chocolate flavour, so I have made a hazelnut cake, sandwiched together with chocolate hazelnut spread. I used a white chocolate ganache for the icing so that I would be able to colour it for the speckled egg effect.

The speckled egg icing actually really easy and fun! You just ice as normal and then splatter the cake with a cocoa powder paint to give the speckly effect, the kitchen was a bit of a mess though!

Cream together the butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Fold in the eggs one at a time followed by the chopped hazelnuts and flour.

Spoon into the prepared tins and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked through and golden brown.

Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the white chocolate ganache, melt together the chocolate and cream in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, until the chocolate has fully melted, then stir in the food colouring until it reaches the desired shade of blue.

Cover with clingfilm so that the top of the ganache is toughing the film. Leave to cool to body temperature for a few hours.

whisk the ganache for a few minutes with a hand-held electric mixer until light and creamy. Cover with clingfilm again and leave to reach room temperature.

Place one of the sponges on an icing turntable. Pipe a ring of ganache around the edge of the sponge, then fill the middle with a few tbsp of chocolate hazelnut spread. -repeat with the next two sponges.

Cover the outside of the cake with a thick layer of ganache. then use a scraper to straighten out all the edges.

Smooth out the ganache by warming up a metal spatula in hot water and then using this to smooth out and unwanted lumps and bumps.

Once you are happy with the finish of your ganache you can move on to the speckle decoration!

Mix the cocoa powder with a few tbsp of water until it forms a loose pain like consistency.

Use a clean paintbrush and dip in in your chocolate paint. tap off the excess and then hold the paintbrush with one hand and tap with your fingers to make flecks of pain scatter off the brush – practice on some greaseproof paper before you get to work on the cake!

Use the chocolate paint to decorate the top and sides of the cake until you are happy with the speckley effect.

Finally decorate with some chocolate eggs and the cake is ready to serve!

Sticky balls of coconut and condensed milk, flavoured with cardamom and saffron, rolled in pistachios.

This is my first ever attempt at making an indian dessert at home. I got the recipe from Rick Steins India, which is my favourite cookbook at the moment!
I’ve never been a big fan of indian desserts when Ive had them before, but all the other recipes in Rick’s book are so good, I thought it might be worth trying a dessert recipe!

And actually these are really delicious! They are just sweet enough, and the cardamom and saffron give it a lovely fragrant flavour. They were the perfect finish to am indian meal.

Variations: You could swap some of the desiccated coconut for ground almonds if your not a big coconut lover! I think these would be lovely drizzled with a little bit of dark chocolate too.

Ingredients: Makes 18-20 Ladoo

200g sweetened condensed milk

200g desiccated coconut

8 cardamom pods, seeds removed and finely ground

small pinch of saffron, soaked in 3-4 tbsp of warm milk

To coat:

50g desiccated coconut

25 pistachios – finely chopped

To Make:

Combine the desiccated coconut, condensed milk, cardamom and saffron milk in a large pan.

Cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes, until the mixture becomes very sticky, but is coming away from the sides.

Leave to cool until it is cold enough the handle. Mix the coating ingredients together and pour onto a small plate.

Wet your hands and take tablespoon sized lumps of the mixture and mould them into a ball. Roll each ball in the coating and transfer to another plate or tray.

This weekend was my one year blog-versary! I decided to mark the occasion my attempting to master a bake that has failed me before; the macaron.

I tried them about a year ago with disastrous results! They were just lumpy almond biscuits, with no foot, or shiny top, and since then I have been to scared to try again.

Last time I tried the Italian meringue method and since they were such a disaster, I decided to try the french method, which at first glance seemed much simpler, so I was hopeful for good results!

I did a LOT of googling before I started, and read through loads of french macaron recipes. I found that most of the recipes contained the same amounts and instructions, and settled on this recipe, as it had good reviews.

My first attempt was almost right, I managed to get quite a good foot on each biscuit, and there were no cracks, so they did look quite like a proper macaron, but unfortunately the tops were very lumpy, and not shiny at all, so I knew I wasn’t quite there!

I had another google for macaron trouble shooting, and decided that my problems were probably due to either under-mixing the batter, or not having almonds that were finely ground enough.

During the first batch, I only just mixed the almond and sugar mixture into the egg whites because I was scared of knocking out all the air, but I soon realised that you actually need to mix the batter for little longer until it runs off the spoon and leaves a ‘ribbon’ trace.

So, for my second batch of macarons, I gave the ground almonds an extra blitz in the food processor to get a finer grind, and I made sure I mixed the batter until it formed ‘ribbons’.

I noticed when I piped the mixture onto the macaron sheet, that it flattened out much more smoothly, and looked a lot more glossy, so I was hopeful that they would turn out better!

And I was right be be hopeful because the second batch turned out really well, with nice smooth shiny tops, and a foot! so now I know how to make proper macarons!

I will give the recipe for the chocolate and coffee macarons which worked!

Ingredients: Makes 14 Mocha Macarons

100g egg whites (3 eggs)

1/4 tsp of cream of tartar

40g granulated sugar

100g ground almonds

200g icing sugar

30g cocoa powder

150ml double cream

1tbsp espresso powder

1tbsp icing sugar

To Make:

Take the eggs out of the fridge a few hours before use and leave to warm up to room temperature.

Line a baking tray with either a silicone macaron mat, or a sheet of baking paper with templates drawn on.

Place the almonds in a food processor and blitz a few times to mix into a finer powder.

Sift the ground almonds, cocoa powder and caster sugar into a large bowl and set aside.

In a separate clean bowl, whisk up the egg whites until soft peaks form, then add the caster sugar, and whisk to form stiff glossy peaks.

Fold the almond mixture into the egg whites bit at a time, until fully incorporated. Continue to mix until the mixture loosens up a little, and the batter runs off the back of the spoon ‘like lava’ or forms a ‘ribbon’ like trace when it runs back into the bowl.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a medium sized circular nozzle.

Pipe dollops of mixture onto the prepared baking tray. Pat down any peaks on the macarons with a wet finger. Tap the baking tray hard on your work surface a few times to remove and large air bubbles.

Then leave the macarons to set for 45mins-1 hour before baking – this step is very important as the macarons need to form a skin before they are baked. You can check to see if they are ready by lightly touching them, they should be tacky and not stick to your fingers.

Preheat the oven to 140C.

Once ready, bake the macarons in the preheated oven for 15 minutes until they have puffed up and (hopefully!) formed feet.

Leave to cool completely before removing from the baking tray.

Meanwhile make the filing: dissolve the espresso powder in a few tbsp of hot water. Whip up the double cream until it forms stiff peaks, then fold in the coffee mixture and 1 tbsp of icing sugar.

Spoon the filling mixture into a clean piping bad with a small circular nozzle, and pipe a circle of cream onto one macaron, place another on top, and squeeze gently to spread out the filling.

One of my Christmas presents I have been itching to use is my baked doughnut kit, which came with some nice silicone moulds for making doughnuts in the oven rather than frying them!

Although I love making doughnuts the traditional way with bread dough, it does take quite a lot of time, and it’s harder to add fruit prices etc. so I really wanted to give the baked variety a go!

I decided to start with a basic recipe as I have never baked them before, so I used this Lakeland recipe, and added milk chocolate chips and a chocolate icing.

The doughnuts were super easy to make as the batter was a lot like a muffin mix and baking them was really really easy. They we’re really fun to ice and decorate too, so I can’t wait to try some more flavours!

Variations: You could use a different jam in the filling, or add some fruit into he frangipane. Raspberry would work very well!

Ingredients: Serves 6-8

The Pastry:

250g butter

125g plain flour

50g caster sugar

zest and juice of one lemon

1 egg

The Filling:

2-3tbsp lemon curd

100g butter

100g caster sugar

100g ground almonds

zest and juice of one lemon.

2tbsp flaked almonds

To Make:

The Pastry:

Preheat the oven to 180C, and grease a 30m rectangular tart tin.

In a large bowl combine the flour and butter. Rub together into a fine breadcrumb like consistency. Mix in the lemon zest, juice and egg until the mixture comes together into a rough ball of dough. (You can add a little extra water or lemon juice if the dough won’t come together)

Turn out onto a clean, floured work surface and form into a rectangle. Roll out into a large rectangle, around half a centimeter thick.

Line the greased tin which the pastry sheet, pushing the pasty into the crevices of the tin. Trim off the edges and prick the bottom of the pasty win a fork.

Weigh the pastry down with baking beans or equivalent, bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes.

Remove the baking beans and return to the oven for another 10 minutes to brown the base of the pastry.

Remove from the oven.

The Frangipane:

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale of fluffy. Fold in the eggs one at a time, followed by the lemon zest and juice, flour and ground almonds.

Assembling:

Spoon the lemon curd into the bottom of the blind baked pasty case, and sooth out into a thin layer.

Top with the frangipane and smooth out, then scatter over the flaked almonds.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.